Cash Landing

FBI special agent Andie Henning, a regular in bestseller Grippando’s Jack Swytek series (Black Horizon, etc.), plays a leading role in this tragicomic crime novel. In the heist of a bank transfer at a Miami International Airport warehouse, Ruban Betancourt, the head of an amateur gang that includes his coke-addicted brother-in-law, manages to bag more than $9 million in cash. The robbery goes off without a hitch, but that’s the last time things go right. The size of the haul attracts rival crooks, and Ruban must cope with the fallout from his henchmen’s greed and stupidity while keeping his role hidden from his wife, Savannah. Recently transferred from Seattle to Miami, Andie digs away at whatever small clues she finds, at one point going undercover in a seedy sex club. Beleaguered Ruban’s every move seems to backfire with money hemorrhaging and dreams evaporating. Those expecting the wit of the late Donald E. Westlake’s John Dortmunder caper series will be disappointed. Agent: Richard Pine, Inkwell Management. (June)